This specification relates to golf, golf clubs, and holders for golf clubs in a golf club stand.
The origins of golf are not clear, but the modern game of golf is generally considered to have begun in Scotland during the Middle Ages. Golf began to find substantial international popularity beginning in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and more specifically in the United States during the roaring twenties. Even so, golf remains widely viewed as a game of the upper classes, requiring a good deal of money and time to play. Because of the time needed to play a full game of golf, driving ranges are often used by golfers to practice their swing when they do not have the time for eighteen holes of golf. However, hitting golf balls at a driving range has often been considered a rather boring passtime, even when targets are provided on the golf range.
More recently, however, this notion has changed with the development of interactive golf ranges, where the successful hitting of a target with a golf ball is automatically identified in a computer system. For example, the TopGolf company has developed Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology for golf balls and targets that enables rapid feedback for golf balls hit by specific players into specific targets on a golf range. Details of RFID and other golf related technologies can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,607,123, 7,056,221, 7,059,974, 7,160,196, and 7,337,965, which are hereby incorporated by reference. Such technologies allow the development of innovative and exciting games of golf that increase the fun for new players while still providing an authentic golf experience for established players. These exciting games, along with golf range facilities that include high quality food and drink, and other on-site entertainments, open the doors to a much larger public interested in playing golf.